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An art blog by Jon Coffelt on The Whole 9

Jon Coffelt, highly acclaimed artist, activist and curator, is a former gallery owner living and working in Manhattan. Coffelt decided to keep his distinctive Southern drawl.

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Just What Is An Opportunity?

May 5, 2010
24 Comments (see all)

I have asked myself this very questions so many times of late. Do we, as artists, comprehend opportunities that present themselves to us? Are we too jaded to see them? Are we blind to the fact that they are all around us? What is it that quantifies an opportunity? Are we only looking at sales to boost our bottom line? Are we only seeing the surface of things instead of digging down deeper?

Personally I see so many opportunities and for me this is much more about having the time to implement these ideas into positive change for me and my work. I sometimes feel pulled thin with wondering what to pursue. I have so many pans in the fire but this can sometimes work against me and I need clearer boundaries or I get so much in my head that I am no longer clear to make the right decisions.

We are all products of our environments in so many ways and to understand how we can take obstacles and turn them into stepping stones is very important. What quantifies an opportunity for you?

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  1. joncoffelt

    Three Things to know
    1. Always look a gift horse in the mouth.
    2. If it sounds too good to be true. It most likely is.
    3. If vampires are involved and you’ll know them because you will have less energy after you’ve been around them, then Don’t and I repeat “Don’t get involved” for your own sake.

  2. montie

    Good advice — sometimes it’s nice to have that reaffirmed from someone else. Just fired a client for $ reasons and realized in the interim that the ‘opportunity’ was really a vampiric drain on my energy as well as hard work on top of that. It feels great to have made that call and acted on it.

    Your piece makes me think about a conversation I had recently with a friend about the term “discrimination”. Now-a-days this word has become synonymous with racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, or other negative references. Back in the early 20th century, it was a real compliment to refer to someone as being very “discriminant”. The idea was that it is a positive skill to be able to recognize the good opportunities from the bad ones (without any prejudice implied).

    I think in modern times, people are afraid to be discriminant because the word has been linked to decisions based on negative prejudices; and that by not being proactively discriminant about choosing your opportunities, one takes on a passive acceptance of everything which creates a whole set of other problems.

    You have to choose the life you want.

  3. joncoffelt

    Often times, our chains are pulled by people who just like to here themselves talk and for me this is the most damaging type of person.
    They talk a good game and waste lots of your time which for me is of the essence. Recently, I have been clearing my list of these people because I began to realize that I beat myself up if they come back with something as inane as I really wanted it but my husband wont let me. How is that for being in 2010? WOW!

    I suppose I should feel good that someone likes my work but I really dont anymore because of people like this and because I have learned that after 29 years of being a full-time artist talk is cheap and my work is not and I dont like mixing the cheap feeling I get from the surface talk. I dont roll that way nor should you.

    I feel that living in integrity is the only way an artist or anyone else for that matter, can understand the real opportunities that this big vast abundant world has to offer. I am not buying into being the victim when I can spend the very same amount of time and be the victor. My choices are sometimes my opportunities.

  4. joncoffelt

    http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120119021347775&bcode=ueHvW

    THE UNAFFORDABLE ART FAIR
    Coordinators: Gregory de la Haba & CJ Nye

  5. theroadhome

    After 20+ years pursuing my ‘dream’ I’ve learned a few things about what opportunities really are, but I’ve also allowed some to pass by out of fear. It’s a crazy balance to maintain. Without a proper dose of idealism we’re stagnant…but without some healthy skepticism we are consumed by said ‘vampires’. Instinct has rarely steered my wrong.

  6. joncoffelt

    For me ” change ” is an opportunity. Any change like living in another country, another culture or working in another print studio. I was tired of working in a print studio here in London and I am trying now to work at home and print without a press. Obstacles are opportunities too. Nothing is as bad for an artist as repetition and the comfort of the known. -Luce Clereen

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